Grapevines

[Mike Natale]

Hello, my wife and I purchased a new home and moved in with our two sons in October... (I know I definitely should have looked into this sooner)...
In our backyard, the previous owners have grapevines running up the beams of an elevated patio which is truly set-up beautifully.. The only problem is, my wife nor I know how to care for, or manage them for the life of us... I've watched videos, and tried to read up on it a little, but all if come away with is that I have to cut back the previous years growth down to two buds... But I have no clue what grew and/or didn't grow last year etc... I've also read that I should have done this in late March, early April.. Today is May 8th. So I know I'm late, and I guess even if I have to lose this year's fruit growth to save them, that's what I will have to do.. I am going to upload pictures of the set up that we have.. If anyone could please take a few minutes to look at them and advise me what to do, we would greatly appreciate it. Thank you so much in advance.. BTW if it matters we live in Long Island, NY

 

[Beth_B]

Hi.

Well I am no grape expert. But at my last house I had grape vines growing across my back deck. I did absolutely nothing to them, and they did fine, came back every year. With grapes.

So maybe you are over thinking this, grapes gonna do what grapes gotta do, and unless you are planning on making fine wine, letting them go wild for now is just fine.

 

[Mike Natale]

Hi.

Well I am no grape expert. But at my last house I had grape vines growing across my back deck. I did absolutely nothing to them, and they did fine, came back every year. With grapes.

So maybe you are over thinking this, grapes gonna do what grapes gotta do, and unless you are planning on making fine wine, letting them go wild for now is just fine.

LoL sounds good to me!!! My wife has been PANICKING over them and constantly harassing me to figure out what we have to do.. Every video I could find spoke about pruning the branches and cutting back etc etc, but leaving it be sounds just as good to me.. LoL thank you

 

[marlingardener]

Mike, if the vines are alive and putting out new leaves--just leave them alone. When we lived in upstate NY, we had three varieties of grapes draped over fencing. They did well, no pruning except when we happened to run over part of a vine with the lawn mower, and we had grapes to eat and give away.
The only thing I'd do is keep an eye on the vines. They get big, strong, and can take down guttering. You may want to keep a close eye on the vine in the last photo that seems to have an affinity for your downspout!

 

[Mike Natale]

Mike, if the vines are alive and putting out new leaves--just leave them alone. When we lived in upstate NY, we had three varieties of grapes draped over fencing. They did well, no pruning except when we happened to run over part of a vine with the lawn mower, and we had grapes to eat and give away.
The only thing I'd do is keep an eye on the vines. They get big, strong, and can take down guttering. You may want to keep a close eye on the vine in the last photo that seems to have an affinity for your downspout!

LoL I will.. Thank you so much for the input.. I wish I would've done this before cutting some of the vines/branches down.. For the most part, everything I cut down was dead, and dried out.. But I did cut a couple of leaves down because I was stuck on the whole "prune them & cut it back to 2 buds theory I gained from watching YouTube... Now that I know I can just leave them be, I will get up there tomorrow and try to redirect & tie up some of the free floating vines.. Especially that one in my last picture.. Thank you again.